NYTheatre.com Review: Wake Up, You’re Dead!
Posted October 29, 2010 at 6:02 pm
NYTHEATRE.COM REVIEW
by Richard Hinojosa
It’s interesting to think about creation during this time of the year that we celebrate death. Creation, after all, is just a part of the cycle of life and every culture has their story of how they came to be. In Wake Up, You’re Dead!, Brooklyn Art Department has created a new creation myth and it’s worth a look.
The myth begins when creators, two beautifully designed skeleton puppets named Cornflake and Meatloaf, decide it’s time they pay forward the gift of life. A single dancer enters as the Universe being tossed about in the Big Bang and the Ancestors appear as robed figures with crested skulls. Then the lights go low and a short film plays on the brick wall of the theatre, followed immediately by an explosion of savage creatures drenched in black light and outfitted with masks and skeleton suits. The lights move to the back of the stage where a performer cocooned in silk awakes and begins an aerial dance until finally rudimentary humans are formed using a simple design of cloth tied to poles. But that’s not the end of it, the Ultimate Being stills awaits and it’s a luminous puppet big enough to push the ceiling.
OffOffOnline Review: Folk Tales of Asia and Africa
Posted at 5:03 pm
A Kitchen Full of Wonders
by Kelly Aliano
When is a wisk not a wisk? When it is transformed into a Japanese woman on a journey to learn the secret of how air or fire can be held in paper. When is a pepper shaker not a pepper shaker? When it becomes a young African woman in search of the home of her bridegroom. In Folktalkes of Asia and Africa, Jane Catherine Shaw and her array of kitchen utensils are able to enact such magical thrills. Whole worlds are built on stage through the use of simple household objects. This children’s puppet play at La MaMa is a delight for audiences of all ages.
Nicholas Gorham: One Drop Passing
By Nicholas Gorham
February 4 – February 5, 2011 at 10:00pm
Friday & Saturday at 10pm
‘Nicholas Gorham: One Drop Passing’ is part homage to black revolutionary entertainers and part journey of self-discovery. While relating the history of black music to the artist’s own experience of being mixed, this hybrid of scripted theatre and cabaret explores what it means to be “passing” in today’s culture and what it meant when the One Drop Rule was law. ‘Nicholas Gorham: One Drop Passing’ illustrates how societal ideas of race can affect a person when they discover they aren’t exactly what they thought they were… or what they are perceived to be.
Acting Together schedule
La MaMa E.T.C. presents:
Theatre Without Borders
ACTING TOGETHER ON THE WORLD STAGE:
THEATRE and PEACE BUILDING in CONFLICT ZONES
September 23-26, 2010
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
3:30-5:30pm REGISTRATION
5pm MEET & GREET
5:30 WELCOME AND ORIENTATION
6-7:30 DOCUMENTARY
“ACTING TOGETHER: PERFORMANCE AND THE CREATIVE TRANSFORMATION OF CONFLICT”
A film by Cynthia Cohen and Allison Lund
Tells the stories of courageous and creative artists, cultural workers and peacebuilders working in zones of conflict. http://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/peacebuildingarts/
Introduction by Dan Terris, International Center for Ethics, Justice & Public Life, Brandeis University
Followed by brief remarks by Devanand Ramiah, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, UNDP, and a panel discussion with Cynthia Cohen, Brandeis University and Allison Lund, filmmaker.
7:30-8 RECEPTION hosted by Brandeis University
8-9:30 PERFORMANCE FOLLOWED BY TALKBACK
“BUCK WORLD ONE” (USA)
Developed under the guidance of playwright and University of California, Riverside Professor of Theater Rickerby Hinds. Buck (sometimes called Krump) is an energetic, expressive and very physical new dance form that grew out of South Los Angeles neighborhoods. “Krump or Buck is a form of expression often related to praise dancing that explores and addresses themes such as violence in the community, police brutality and the civil-rights movement.” Young people with no formal dance training gather in church fellowship halls, playgrounds, parking lots or any neutral space each week throughout Southern California to participate in “krump battles” in which they use dance moves instead of bullets. “Buck World One” portrays how the worlds might have begun 13.7 billion years ago — from the universe, the Earth, continents, countries and neighborhoods down to the individual – showing that everyone is part of the larger picture.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2010
9-9:30am COFFEE & TEA
9:30-9:45am WELCOME AND ORIENTATION
9:45-11am KEYNOTE
Dr. Barbara Love, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“CONFLICT & TRAUMA: Strategies for Transformation and Healing”
In “The Teeth May Smile But the Heart Does Not Forget”, author Andrew Rice grapples with the trauma produced by violence and conflict on individual lives as well as the entire society in the Uganda of Idi Amin. The ongoing trauma produced by violence and conflict in Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, Sri Lanka, the Americas, and other parts of the world hurts the human spirit and marks the soul. Humankind needs healing to reclaim our capacity to transform ourselves and the societies that cluster us. This discussion reflects on strategies for healing and the extension of soul healing to the transformation of the world.
11-11:10am BREAK
11:10am-12:30pm ROUNDTABLE
AFTERMATH: HUMAN RIGHTS AND RECOVERY:
Facilitator Catherine Filloux (TWB, USA) With Ieng Sithul, Chhon Sina, and Rithisal Kang (CAMBODIA); Pauline Ross (NORTHERN IRELAND); Hjalmar-Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn (AFGHANISTAN); William Yellow Robe, Jr. (ASSINIBOINE TRIBE, PART OF THE SIOUX NATIONS)
12:30-12:50pm SHAKE IT UP SESSION – Forum Theatre with Chris Vine and Helen White (Creative Arts Team).
12:50-2pm LUNCH
Lunch table conversation: ”The Emerging Generation” Moderated by J.J. El-Far and Tracy Francis – The Club Theatre, 74A E. 4th Street
Lunch table conversation: “Responses to the ACTING TOGETHER Documentary” with Cynthia Cohen & Allison Lund – The Club Theatre
2-3:20pm ROUNDTABLE
IN THE MIDST OF VIOLENT CONFLICT:
Facilitator Roberta Levitow (TWB, USA) With Dijana Milosevic, DAH Theatre (SERBIA); Lee Perlman and Aida Nasrallah (ISRAEL); Rubina Feroze Bhatti (PAKISTAN); Gũlgũn Kayim (CYPRUS/USA); Mahmood Karimi-Hakak (USA/IRAN)
3:30-3:45pm BREAK
3:45-6pm PERFORMANCE IN DIALOGUE – Host, Mia Yoo
Naomi Newman, A Traveling Jewish Theatre (USA)
“Through An Old Woman’s Eyes; Stories and Lamentations About the State of the World and How to Repair the Mess”
Dawn Saito, Fordham University (USA)
“Sword of Sea”
Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Siena College (IRAN/USA)
Dialogue Impossible? “The Glass Wall”
6-7:30pm CULTURE ON CANVAS: CONTEMPORARY BURMESE ART Exhibit and Reception –
La MaMa Galleria, 6 East 1st Street
EXHIBIT HOURS: Thurs-Sat 1-8pm, Sun 1-6pm
8-10pm PERFORMANCES
VOICES FROM CAMBODIA (In Khmer)
Ieng Sithul sings “The Birth of Sam and Bopha” and “Our Land’s Compassion” from the contemporary opera “Where Elephants Weep” (Composer Him Sophy). He also performs a scene from a Cambodian story Lea peakriyea tov tak domrey. There is a tradition in Cambodian villages that men, before leaving to hunt elephants, perform a ritual reminding their wives of the things they should not do. It is a superstition that if the wife combs her hair or cooks a certain soup the husband will encounter bad luck in the forest. Ieng will use two kinds of flutes (Saneng and Pey).
Chhon Sina performs from “The Tooth of Buddha” a new play by Morm Sokly, a Cambodian performer and playwright. The play is Poetry Theatre (Lakhaon Kamnap) and is done in spoken or chanted verse, portraying the miracle of Buddhism. In Cambodian poetry there are at least 53 styles of verse and 60 different ways of reciting. The sacred relic tooth of the Buddha and its eventual resting place in Sri Lanka is not a common subject for a contemporary stage play in Cambodia. The scene is about a husband and wife bringing this relic of the Buddha to a stupa. Chhon Sina is a playwright, actress and teacher from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
brief intermission
“DISCOVER LOVE” – Belarus Free Theatre (BELARUS)
Written by Nikolai Halezin and Natalia Koliada
Directed by Nikolai Halezin
Choreographed by Olga Skvortsova
Music by DJ Laurel
Established in 2005 in response to repression in “Europe’s last dictatorship,” the award-winning Belarusian company—now outlawed at home—stages a gripping original drama based on the true story of dissident Irina Krasovskaya and her husband Anatoly, who was “disappeared” 10 years ago. Their wrenching story is interwoven with parallel instances of political intimidation and violence in Asia and South America. Belarus Free Theatre is devoted to presenting dramas by banned Belarusian playwrights, whose work it also translates and publishes abroad. The troupe first began performing in private apartments and has since won the backing of prominent playwrights such as the late Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Václav Havel, as well as numerous artistic and human rights organizations. Performed in Russian with supertitles in English.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2010
9-9:30am COFFEE & TEA
9:30-9:45am WELCOME AND ORIENTATION
9:45-11am KEYNOTE
James Thompson, University of Manchester, UK
“An Incident of Cutting and Chopping: A performance lecture on the Bindunuwewa child soldier massacre in Sri Lanka 2000″
The performance lecture explores a child soldier massacre in Sri Lanka in 2000 and is based on James’ work in Sri Lanka since that time. It asks questions about the relationship between theatre practitioners and the contexts in which they work, and where responsibilities lie when things go wrong. ‘An Incident of Cutting and Chopping’ is linked to a commemorative project about the massacre that has been developed in Sri Lanka in the years since the event and draws on material in the opening chapter of James’ book ‘Performance Affects’. The performance is part of a broader project researching and developing performance projects in sites of armed conflict that James has directed since 2004 – In Place of War (www.inplaceofwar.net)
11-11:10am BREAK
11:10am-12:30pm ROUNDTABLE
CONFLICT UNDER REPRESSION:
Facilitator Daniel Banks (TWB, USA) With Natalia Kaliada, Belarus Free Theatre (BELARUS); Roberto Varea, Argentina (USA/ARGENTINA); Iman Aoun, Ashtar Theatre (PALESTINE); Manijeh Mohamedi (IRAN); Ruth Margraff (USA/INDIA)
12:30-12:50pm SHAKE IT UP SESSION – Playback Theatre with Hannah Fox and Mizuho Kanazawa (Big Apple Playback)
12:50-2pm LUNCH
Lunch Table Conversation: “Theatre Artists in Iran” - led by Torange Yeghiazarian with Ayat Najafi; Manijeh Mohamedi; Mahmood Karimi-Hakak – The Club Theatre, 74A E. 4th Street
Lunch Table Conversation: ”Using Devised Theatre in Conflict Zones” – led by Iñigo Ramirez de Haro – The Club Theatre, 74A E. 4th Street
2-3:20pm ROUNDTABLE
REBUILDING SOCIETY AFTER VIOLENT CONFLICT:
Facilitator Deborah Asiimwe (UGANDA)
With Maria Draghici, laBOMBA and Bogdan Georgescu, Generosity Offensive (ROMANIA); Dale Byam, Brooklyn College, Theatre for Development in Africa (USA); Adalet Garmiany, ArtRole Iraq-US Exchanges (IRAQ); Zane Lucas, Theory X Media (ZIMBABWE); Lillian Manzor, Cuba/Latina Theatre Archive (USA/CUBA)
3:30-4pm BREAK
4-6:30pm WORKSHOPS
1. International Beginner’s Guide: David Diamond, Host; Marcy Arlin, Immigrants Theatre Project (USA); Cecily Cook, Asian Cultural Council (USA); Georgiana Pickett, 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange (USA)
2. International Video Conference: Billy Clark, International Program Director; Catherine Filloux, Curator; FAVILEK Women Theatre Artists (HAITI); Morm Sokly (CAMBODIA); Eugene Van Erven (THE NETHERLANDS); Polly Walker (AUSTRALIA) – Culture Hub, Great Jones Street Studios
3. Theatre of Festivity: Ali Mahdi and Albugaa Theatre (SUDAN) –Great Jones Street Studios, 1st Floor
4. Forum Theatre: Iman Aoun and Ashtar Theatre (PALESTINE) – La MaMa, 1st Floor Theater
5. Story Circle Workshop: John O’Neal, Junebug Productions (USA) – La MaMa, Club Space
6. Open Forum Sharing Session: Josh Perlstein and Lisa Schlesinger, Hosts – Ellen Stewart Lobby
6:30-7:45pm DINNER
8-9pm PERFORMANCE
“CROSSING THE LINE” – DAH Teatar (SERBIA)
Dramaturgy and direction: Dijana Milošević
Performers: Maja Mitić, Sanja Krsmanović Tasić, Ivana Milenović
Set design: Neša Paripović
Costume design: Dah Theatre Research Centre
Sound design: Jugoslav Hadžić
Light design: Radomir Stamenković
Organization: Ivana Damnjanović and Dejan Popović
This performance of Dah Theatre is based on texts from the book Women’s Side of War edited by the Women in Black organization (2007). The book is a collection of authentic women’s testimonies about the wars that had occurred in the former republic of Yugoslavia from 1991 till 1999. The book is the result of a year’s research by Women in Black, and in cooperation with women’s nongovernmental organizations in the region who are dealing with the past and human rights. Most of the texts have been already published in various books and in other publications created by these NGOs. They consist of testimonies, statements, letters and memories. They show the specific suffering of women in war, but also their courage and strength for surviving the trauma of war to re-establish normal life, and also the importance of solidarity with women beyond all borders and divisions. All testimonies are presented in the first person, without comments or any other kind of use or misuse. The main goal of the performance is to reach the audience not only on a verbal but, primarily, on an emotional and psychological level and to stimulate women to start speaking; to take note of and to express their own sufferings through recognizing the suffering of others; to develop solidarity; to become conscious about the essence of violence in war; to become more active in democratic processes; and to participate in building a righteous and long-lasting peace.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
9:30-10am COFFEE/TEA
10-11:30am ROUNDTABLE
ADVOCACY AND STRATEGIES FOR MOVING FORWARD:
Facilitator Erik Ehn (Arts in the One World, USA)
With Kitche Magak, Arts & Peace Building Program, Maseno University (KENYA); Emilya Cachapero, ITI US Center (USA); Cathy Zimmerman, MAPP International/Africa Consortium (USA-AFRICA); Ella Fuksbrauner, Bogota Festival (COLOMBIA); John Martin, PAN Intercultural Arts (UK); Torange Yeghiazarian & Lisa Rothe, Middle East American Play Initiative – Golden Thread Productions & The Lark Play Development Center (USA)
11:30-11:40am BREAK
11:40am-1:10pm ROUNDTABLE
METHODOLOGY CASEBOOKS: HOW THEORY BECOMES PRACTICE
Facilitator Roberto Varea, (University of San Francisco, USA) With Chris Vine and Helen White, Theatre of the Oppressed, Creative Arts Team (USA); Ali Mahdi, Theatre of Festivity, Albugaa Theatre: (SUDAN); Joanna Sherman, Bond Street Theatre (USA); Jo Salas, Hudson River Playback Theatre (USA); Kwesi Johnson, Kompany Malakhi (UK)
1:10-1:30pm SHAKE IT UP SESSION – Hip-Hop Theatre, Daniel Banks (Hip Hop Theatre Initiative, USA) Kwesi Johnson (Kompany Malakhi, UK)
1:30-2:30pm LUNCH
3-3:45pm PERFORMANCE
“SINNAR CRUCIBLE” – Albugaa Theatre (SUDAN)
Written and composed by Ali Mahdi
Performers: Gamal Abdelrahman; Tarig Ali; Gidier Mirghani; Awad Hassan; Abdelsalam Khalil; Ekhlas Noureldin; Amira Ahmed; Ibrahim Khadir; Mohamed Abdalla; Emam Hassan; Abdelaziz Mohamed; and Gasim Elelah Hamednalla.
Called a “Spectacle of Festivity Towards Indulgent Democracy”, this performance comes from the Sudan Center for Theatre in Conflict Zones. The center’s goals are research and performance in the meeting between Arabic and African cultures. The characters are “from our times” but they also are “the echo of the fathers”, who are all meeting in the Sinnar Crucible. The play searches for solutions to the conflicts of war by retrieving the times of agreement.
5pm CONFERENCE ENDS
NYTheatre.com Review: America Hurrah Revisited
Posted October 25, 2010 at 11:47 am
NYTHEATRE.COM REVIEW
by Martin Denton
America Hurrah premiered at La MaMa 45 years ago and became one of the seminal protest theatre works of a decade that was marked by productive protest everywhere. Two of its three sections—”Interview” and “Motel”—are included in America Hurrah Revisited, the first half of a double bill presented by Theatre Research Ensemble at The Club at La MaMa for a two-weekend run. People my age and younger will likely never have seen America Hurrah performed, though they probably know something about it; and so this glimpse at these two works, both of which attack ideas like conformity and complacency overtly via their content and covertly via their presentation and style, is fascinating to attend: in them we see not only the combative anti-establishment politics that defined a generation of American thinkers and artists but also artistic innovations that have become the norm in present-day theatre. Playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie probably is more influential than he ever imagined in helping to shape—with collaborators like Joseph Chaikin and Tom O’Horgan—much of what underlies the indie theatre movement of today.
Contemporary Israeli Dance Week Gala
By C.I.D.F.
January 31, 2011 at 7:30pm
On Monday, January 31st you are invited to a Gala Event to raise funds for a unique new project:
The Contemporary Israeli Dance Week
part of the “La MaMa Moves” Dance Festival.
A special event is coming to New York this spring:
FIVE Israeli based Choreographers
FIVE NYC based Israeli Choreographers
will PERFORM and TEACH MASTER CLASSES for an entire week at La MaMa Theater and participating organizations.
Video Dances by the “Jump Cut” Video Editing School.
The Gala evening will feature NYC’s Israeli Choreographers such as Degnait Shemi, LeeSaar company, Netta Yerushalmy and more. Ticket to the Gala starts at $100. Click here to purchase tickets online
The Contemporary Israeli Dance Week is curated by C.I.D.F and presented by La MaMa E.T.C.
The project is generously supported in part by the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York.
Actions
By Irish Modern Dance Theatre
January 10 – January 11, 2011 at 12:15pm
Free Admission
Recently performed in La MaMa Moves, New York , Tanzmesse NRW, Germany and Re- Presenting Ireland at Dublin Dance Festival to acclaim. ACTIONS is a physical conversation between two individuals in empty space by two outstanding male dancers. ACTIONS is a battle through the space using physicality, lifts, falls, text and sound, the dancers alternately throwing their bodies together then fragmenting into threads of raw movement. ACTIONS is both funny and exciting. ACTIONS tours in 2011 to DanceBase Edinburgh, during Edinburgh Festival.
“a powerhouse duo, athletic in sneakers and drenching their sweat pants in a sheen of sweat after extensive explosive movement sequences”
- Culturebot/New York Arts magazine
“For sheer impact and perfection in performance, nothing could touch the athleticism and polished ease of …. John Scott’s Actions. Here was lean, raw movement, a series of urgently driven lifts and falls,,,, Actions brims with exuberance”
- Seona Mac Reamoinn/IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE
Funded by Culture Ireland
Phase Shift
By Jen Williams and Wilfredo Ortega
January 6 – January 30, 2011
This collaboration between two local artists results in an exhibit of installation pieces that respond to the changes in both the Bowery’s physical surroundings and its community. Jen Williams- “it’s an amalgamation of memory, images, and research which will become a site specific collage construction (or deconstruction) of the Bowery’s present state. Wilfredo Ortega- “The work is measured, rectilinear, and colorful. Compositions of interlocking vinyl sheets are grouped and taped directly to the wall emphasizing the geometric order of the architecture. The architecture generates my work.”
Jennifer Williams received her BFA from Cooper Union and her MFA from Goldsmiths College in London. She has lived and worked primarily in Manhattan for the last twenty years and has made the visual exploration of New York City a central theme in her collage and photography work. Shown in Europe and the US, exhibitions include: The Homefront in Long Island City, Queens, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; as well as Silvereye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh,PA. Her work has been included int he Dumbo Arts Festival and the Howl Festival. She is a 2011 Center for Emerging Visual Artists and was a 2008-2009 A.I.R. Fellow, as well as a 2009 resident a the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY. Her work is included in “Stickers: Stuck-Up Piece of Crap: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art”, The New Yorker Photo Blog, and “The Landmarks of New York” volume IV. She currently is a Visiting full time Professor in Visual Art at Brown University. For more information go to: www.jennifer-williams.com.
Wilfredo Ortega received his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from Yale University. He was born, lives, and works in the Lower East Side of New York. His work has been exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum, and the Bronx Museum of Art where he participated in “Artist in the Marketplace 29”. He is currently a Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute. For more information go to: www.wilortega.com
OffOffOnline Review: I Fioretti In Musica
Posted October 1, 2010 at 3:40 pm
A PLAY OF MIRACLES
OFFOFFONLINE.COM REVIEW
by Kelly Aliano
Every once in a while, there is a work of theater that is remarkable in some way: thrilling, touching, unforgettable. More infrequently than even that, on the rarest of rare moments, there is a production that is not only somehow remarkable but also pure art, a representation of what theater can (and perhaps should) be. I Fiorretti in Musica – Opera in Danza presented by Pioneers go East Company is one such work. In its sheer simplicity, it is utter genius.
The Orphans
By La Criatura Theatre
December 2 – December 12, 2010
“Both performers stunning and minutely specific physical control is consistent and equally impressive throughout the performance”. – New York Theater Review
“…everything significant is conveyed through graceful, stylized, and seemingly gravity-defying movement….the pleasure of watching beautiful bodies in motion” - Backstage
The Orphans is a sexy, poetic and timely love story with physical theater and music set in New York 10 years from now. A continuing economic crisis means that even basic resources have been privatized and the country has turned to violence to ensure its survival. A laid-off pharmaceutical salesman joins a subversive militia who perform acts of sabotage throughout the city. His only contact with them is through a stern female agent. As they fall in love, they must choose between taking refuge in their newfound individual happiness or dedicating themselves to changing the world.
Made possible in part by the contributions of the Puffin Foundation, The Yip Harburg Foundation and NYSCA.
THE ORPHANS by La Criatura Theater from Jose Bayona on Vimeo.